The final qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian GP at Mugello was sunny and fine (with the odd bit of cloud – but certainly nothing like yesterday’s rotten conditions) so times were a lot faster. And with the 250cc session they just kept tumbling, with Mika Kallio initially leading, then Alvaro Bautista and finally Hector Barbera.Alhtough Barbera eventualy took his last-minute pole with a dominant 0.772 second advatnage over Bati, it’s worth bearing in mind that Alvaro’s final fast lap was spoiled by traffic – and he reckoned he was on a real flyer.Let’s hope that he has the pace and settings to take advantage of that tomorrow.

Here’s the quote from Alvaro…2nd Alvaro Bautista: 1.53.447 (20 laps): “The result is good but I think that if it wasn’t for traffic over the final few laps I could have improved my time. I’m satisfied because the rhythm is quite good and if the weather tomorrow is like it was this afternoon then I think we have the set-up to fight for a good result. I aim for the best possible result in every race and if I can win tomorrow I’ll obviously go for it. If not I’ll just do my best. It’s difficult to escape here because of the long straight, which makes slipstreaming so important, but we have a strong pace. I’ll just try to get the best out of the set-up of my Aprilia and try to enjoy riding it!”